Too difficult for students of philosophy

[Nuytsia]

The phrase "Alas! Alack!" was used as an example of someone expressing an emotion (In response to the stock market going down.) This was part of a section describing the emotivistic viewpoint, in which ethical statements are regarded as emotive expressions in disguise, instead of fact-stating language.

Hehee I can not imagine ANYONE saying 'alas! alack!'........ I can think of a far more emotive phrase to express a response to the stock market going down.....

Agreed, it's a bit scary to think people would have trouble with most of those words. But in general I dislike the use of unnecessarily elaborate language.

'thul I think native english speakers are a lot more casual with the language than people who have learned it as a second language who are a lot more correct in their usage. I would call myself fluent in my native language, but more often than not probably gramatically incorrect!!!!